Date:
Thursday January 28, 2016Time: 6:30 to
9:00 PM

An Expert Panel drawn from the Upper West Side including transportation professionals, policy analysts, and Community Board Members from CB 9 and CB 12, will discuss this complex and controversial plan.

It is almost certain that everyone has heard or experienced the changes in our neighborhood road network and their design in the last several years. As you also have almost certainly heard there is significant debate about the details of this plan. Unfortunately, the process by which the plans have been developed and implemented have invited more partisan displays than sober policy discussions. We have invited qualified members of the community with opinions representing a variety of positions on the efforts to improve our streets for a thoughtful and open discussion. What is lost in this process has been the realization that our road network is a valuable asset and that any design must optimally exploit that resource for the city, it’s visitors and inhabitants. In this forum we hope to examine the many complicated trade offs between automobile congestion, parking, alternative forms of transit (eg. Bicycles ) and standard forms of mass transit and how a road design can best use our road network.
An independent road study conducted over several months has been completed by the Forum on the congestion and design issues for the super block on Columbus Ave. The study’s results will be presented and discussed. In addition, a preliminary study on Amsterdam Ave. has also been completed and it too will be presented for input and suggestions for further study.

It is almost certain that everyone has heard something about the Mayor’s proposal for the extensive overhaul of the zoning rules and property taxes for the entire City of New York. As you also have almost certainly heard there is significant debate about the details of this plan. Unfortunately, it is difficult for even the most sophisticated New Yorkers to follow the debate because of the complexities of our real estate market. On one side it is said that the goal is to increase the supply of housing that includes the mandatory inclusion of affordable housing to provide for an economically integrated city. Other voices point out that the plan will increase density but at the expense of affordable units. Fortunately, we have a resource to help us understand this complex issue, our Community Board members with decades of experience on this topic. Members of 3 west side boards will join us to share their insights into and assessments of the proposal. This panel has over a century of combined experience in zoning and housing.